The Fishing Business that divided India into 3 parts

With the partition of India and separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan later, the undivided Indian subcontinent has become three parts. This is history. Do you know that the roots of partition of India exists in the fishing business of a person? Believe it or not but this is history…This is another example of how caste system affected India.

There was a person Prem G Bhai in vaeraval town of Gujarat. His family was in economic crisis. He did try many options to come out of the crisis. Nothing worked. As a last attempt, he entered into fishing business. Since he belongs to Lohana caste, which is vegetarian he was questioned as to why he took up fishing business. Despite giving an explanation of his economic condition, he was threatened to quit the job. As he didnt budge, they expelled him from their caste.

Prem G continued with his business without bothering much about the issue. He earned a good fortune in the business. In his old age, he met heads of his caste, pleaded guilty and requested them to accept him into the caste. He even offered to pay anything as fine. The heads of caste, not only rejected him but also humiliated him. When PremG met the heads of his caste,he was accompanied by his son Phunjalal Thakkar. He was hurt by the caste discrimination in Hinduism and so he converted to Islam along with his family members. He gave islamic names to his four sons. But he made sure that his nick name “JINO”, a gujrati word exist in all the four names.

One of the sons of Phunjalal is Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali changed his fathers nick name “JINO” and renamed himself as “Muhammad Ali Jinnah”. This was the same man who was responsible for the partition of India and the birth of Pakistan and became the “Father Of Pakistan”. Later Bangladesh split out of Pakistan. The caste-related beliefs,Caste discrimination of few people lead to the splitting of India into 3 countries. Had Prem Ji not entered fishing business, had the caste heads not behaved rude, the history would have been different. But we cannot change the history.

Caste, regional and religious differences are natural in any society. A good leadership reconciles the conflicting interests of people and ensures that there is unity in diversity. If the leadership tries to use the differences for their political ends, it will only lead to division among people. A leader like jinnah who lead the muslims during freedom struggle was responsible for the partition. We need to learn lessons from history. Many of the problems facing India has roots in the caste system. Opportunistic politics is dividing the people further on caste lines. If we don’t end the caste politics, it might further divide India. So be alert.